Characterizing the Autonomic Correlates of Negative Emotion Differentiation: Bridging Laboratory and Daily Life Assessments.

ABSTRACT: Emotion differentiation reflects how well individuals make fine-grained distinctions between their emotions. Higher emotion differentiation, especially for negative emotion, is associated with a wide range of adaptive emotional responses and improved mental health, but the psychophysiological correlates of emotion differentiation remain underexplored. Here, we examined associations between negative emotion differentiation and autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning at rest in a laboratory setting and across 3 days of ambulatory assessment in daily life. Participants were 80 trauma-exposed adults, half of whom met diagnostic criteria for a primary diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. Measures of parasympathetic control on the cardiac system (i.e., respiratory sinus arrhythmia; RSA

SUBMITTER: Pugach CP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12559776 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature